Fans were angry and confused in regards to the Brandon Merriweather hits on Eddie Lacy and James Starks. Eddie Lacy suffered a concussion on his first carry and was done for the day and naturally there was a lot of outrage as to why no penalty fine was thrown. Afterwards, many fans have been calling [...]

Ultimately both Merriweather’s hit and Starks’ response were both legal and unfortunately Merriweather was concussed as a result.

I think initially, fans have been trained at this point to look for helmet to helmet hits and start yelling for the flag; both the NFLPA and the NFL itself have put such a big emphasis on concussions that it’s now on the minds of every player, every coach and every fan.

Personally I feel like this is a good thing; concussions are a very serious problem with football and players need to be protected so that they can live healthy normal lives after stop playing football. What I do think fans do not realize is there is a method to the madness and referees aren’t just calling penalties randomly as much as it seems. Both Merriweather hits were legal according to the NFL rulebook and therefore should not have been penalized.

Article 6: Unnecessary Roughness. There shall be no unnecessary roughness. This shall include, but will not be limited to.

(h) using any part of a player’s helmet (including the top/crown and forehead/”hairline” parts) or facemask to butt, spear, or ram an opponent violently or unnecessarily

To me this clearly defines his hit on Lacy.

He got away with the Starks hit because Starks' helmet lowered a bit when he braced for the impact. To me it was obvious Meriweather was trying the same thing he did to Lacy but I guess the NFL can't really try and judge somebody's perceived intent.

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